Trump Goes Full ‘Crazy Uncle’ At GOP Mar-a-Lago Event
Mitch McConnell is a “dumb son of a bitch.” Mike Pence is disappointing. And Anthony Fauci is “full of crap.” Those are the three main takeaways from Saturday night’s hour-long, totally off-script rant by twice-impeached former president Donald Trump to a high dollar Republican National Committee donor retreat at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
According to multiple reports Trump decided to toss aside his “boring” prepared remarks and instead savaged those who he blames for not helping him overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Among those in attendance were Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.
Trump used his microphone time to re-hash his demonstrably false claims about the election and criticize Republicans who he feels didn’t do enough to defend him. “If that were Schumer instead of this dumb son of a bitch Mitch McConnell they would never allow it to happen. They would have fought it,” he said of election certifying on Jan. 6, the day his supporters led the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Trump also falsely claimed credit for McConnell’s reelection victory to the Senate and then, for good measure, attacked the senator’s wife, Elaine Chao.
“I hired his wife. Did he ever say thank you?” Trump said of Chao, who served as his secretary of transportation. He then mocked Chao for resigning in response to the Jan. 6 events and Trump’s behavior that day. “She suffered so greatly,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He later called McConnell a “stone cold loser.”
The Washington Post reports that he spoke for about an hour, according to an attendee, and bragged that he had tossed his prepared and “boring” speech, the attendee said. “Bulls***,” he said about the election, before polling the room of Republican donors on whether they believed he won.
Of his vice president, Trump said, “I wish that Mike Pence had the courage to send it back to the legislatures … I like him so much. I was so disappointed,” Trump said.
He then laid into Fauci, the country’s leading epidemiologist, again mocking him for his first pitch last season at Nationals Park. He falsely claimed that Fauci only received credit because he opposed Trump, an attendee said, and joked that Fauci wanted people to wear five masks after not initially supporting masks.
“Have you ever seen anybody that is so full of crap?” he said of Fauci.